Redemption For Those With The Mark Of The Beast

Among the many plagues and catastrophes of Revelation are the bowl judgments, seven judgments "poured" onto the world by angels (16:1).  Revelation 16 says that the fourth and fifth judgments of scorching fire from the sun (8-9) and darkness on the kingdom of the beast (10-11) are met with cursing by those who suffer.  The text says they cursed God and refused to repent.  Firstly, this does affirm free will.  If one has no choice in a matter, one cannot truly refuse a belief or action.  Secondly, something the wording teaches which I have never heard is that if those living chose not to repent, they have the ability to.  Why is this something so controversial or overlooked in this particular case of those who cooperate with the beast?

By this point, since the beast reigns over his kingdom, the mark of the beast has been enforced.  No one buys or sells legally without having it on their forehead or their right hand (13:16-17).  However, Revelation 16:9 and 11 saying that those in alignment with the beast refused to repent, to be accurate, would require that they could repent if they were willing.  In other words, they would not be excluded from the capacity for repentance and thus the capacity for redemption just because they received the mark of the beast, whether it was because they want sheer survival or because they genuinely are devoted to the antichrist.

Revelation 14:9-11 describes those with the mark of the beast as being tormented in the presence of angels and not having rest day or night.  A common stance one might hear derived from these verses is that they will be tortured eternally in the lake of fire and that they forfeit all possibility of salvation for the rest of their lives.  I have written about more important aspects and ramifications of this trio of verses, those being the issue of whether people who take the mark of the beast are eternally tortured in hell unlike how other sinners are reduced to a literal second death in the flames (2 Peter 2:6, Matthew 10:28, Revelation 20:15).  Aside from how verse 11 only says the smoke of their torment rises forever, even if this was literally true, it would not be all humans who suffer eternally, only these.  If it is figurative, then the Bible has already stated that cessation of life/conscious existence is what sin deserves (Ezekiel 18:4, John 3:16, Romans 1:32, 6:23).

Also, 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10 says that the wicked are punished by everlasting destruction and are shut out from the presence of God.  If God is omnipresent, this could only mean they are not in existence.  This would contradict the concept of any wicked humans being kept alive to be tortured without end, which is already inherently disproportionate to any amount of sins in a finite lifetime.  All of this addresses one part of the popular teachings on those who take the mark of the beast.  The relevance of Revelation 16:9 and 11 to this is that Revelation 14:9-11 would not be presenting those with the mark as inescapably damned once they bear it on their forehead or right hand.

This addresses another component of the popular doctrinal misconception about the mark of the best.  It is not just that those who take the mark were capable of receiving salvation beforehand, but it is also that they could repent afterward if only they were willing (22:17).  Revelation also says they, at least at large, will not repent after they receive the mark, but that does not mean that they could not have.  That verses 9-11 of chapter 14 say they will be tormented, whether on Earth or in hell being beside this point, would likewise not mean that they were locked out of salvation by God as opposed to their own constant refusal to repent.